


Fight or Flight

by hallowed-vessels (hasbeenhotel)



Category: Epithet Erased (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, a few people on tumblr wanted to see what i wrote for the ep7 fight but mvau, i was extremely tempted to put "mv!zora has a realy bad day" as the summary, mirrorverse au/inverse personalities au, self deprecation tw, so here it is!, some implied attempted murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28109793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hasbeenhotel/pseuds/hallowed-vessels
Summary: Zora always, always chooses flight. But sometimes, flight isn't an option.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 12





	Fight or Flight

Why was _she_ always the one running? She was supposed to be _strong_. She’s supposed to be the _hunter_. But she was too _weak_ , a _coward_ , **useless**.

This wasn’t the first time she’d had these thoughts. It certainly wouldn’t be the last. But her life was on the line now, her freedom. She knew this forest well, but that didn't mean she’d be safe. She didn't have time for these thoughts.

Zora hiccuped and wiped the tears out of her eyes. She could hear Percy’s footsteps thundering behind her, but couldn’t see her. She bent down to scoop up a handful of sticks and rocks as she ran, and threw them ahead of her as she leapt into the air and scrambled up a tree.

She got as high as she could, and crouched on a branch with her back against the trunk. She pulled her scarf over her mouth and tried to take some deep breaths.

Her hands were still shaking badly as she drew her pistols. She could do this, she **needed** to.

She looked down as Percy’s footsteps approached. The cop was in her sight, her sword crackling with lightning.

“Zora! I know you’re here! Surrender yourself to the law, and maybe I’ll go easy on you.” Percy’s tone made it sound like _going easy_ would still involve a number of broken bones and possibly a missing limb or two.

Her mind went blissfully blank. Her hand steadied. She aimed, and fired all six of her bullets into Percy’s back. The force of the impact was enough to knock the cop over.

Zora quickly holstered her gun, and started to hop from tree to tree. The burst of calm and confidence left as abruptly as it had appeared. The fear that replaced it- accompanied by a lightning bolt that struck where she had been standing only a moment earlier, -drove her to move faster than she ever had.

The sound of Percy’s furious screaming faded into the distance, but Zora didn’t stop. She kept running, jumping from tree to tree, until she was back at the wizard tower that Ramsey was trapped in.

She jumped down to the ground, gasping for air. She scrambled to the towers and clawed at the bricks, yelping as electricity sprang towards her. She needed to get him out so he could help protect her, because she didn’t know where Yoomtah was and she didn’t want to be _alone anymore_ -

She grabbed her other pistol and fired the shots into the bricks. That was so loud, if she didn’t have Percy’s attention already, she would now.

Her hands were shaking too badly to reload any bullets, so she flipped the gun around, and smashed the handle into the crack the bullets had left. She kept hitting it, her eyes filled with tears, constantly glancing over her shoulder because she felt like Percy was _**right there**_ , behind her and ready to drive a sword through her back.

The handle of her gun broke before she made much progress. Zora choked back a sob- her guns were her prized possessions, and now one was broken and she had no one to blame but her own stupid self!

She hated doing this. She hated bringing down what other people had made, and she might hurt Ramsey in the process, but she couldn’t just leave. So she held out her hand, summoned a dial, and spun it forward until the cracks in the bricks started to grow, the stone eroding away, until it all started to crumble to dust.

Ramsey seemed unharmed and unaged, from what she could see through her blurry vision.

Thank goodness, she wasn’t alone anymore! She tackled him in a hug and knocked them both to the ground, rambling incoherently about how scary that was, she never wanted to do that again, she never wanted to leave home ever again, _please don’t leave her alone again_ -

“What is _wrong_ with you?” Ramsey pried her grip off of him and pushed her aside. “We don’t have time for you to be crying! We have to get out of here! Pull yourself together, or I’ll gold your legs and leave you here to distract that cop lady while I run!”

She grabbed the hem of his shirt as he got up and tried to walk away. “I’msosorrypleasedon’tleavemeI’llbebetter-“ Her words all slurred together.

“Then **get up** and help me find a way out of here!” He grabbed her wrist and yanked her to her feet, begrudgingly allowing her to cling to him as they started to walk back towards the town.

“Yoomtah could drive us,” Zora said, wiping at her eyes with her free hand. “But, but I don’t know when she’ll be here. She wasn’t, wasn’t supposed to come get me until ten.” It was only eight thirty-four.

“Yeesh. You’ve still got to be picked up like a toddler from daycare? How’d you survive until adulthood?” _I wasn’t supposed to_ , she wanted to say, but he continued. “Can’t you like, call her and tell her to get over here?”

Zora looked at the ground. “‘M not good with phones... Boss doesn’t give me one ‘nymore... I always break them ‘nd I can’t use them well anyway...” She admitted. She glanced back up at him, hoping that he had his own. “But I know her number!”

“Great.” Ramsey huffed. “The sheriff has my phone. It’s a good thing he’s as useless as you are. We should just be able to go back to the town and get my things back.”

_Useless_. That brought a fresh wave of tears to her eyes. She tried so hard to be brave. She tried to not cry, she tried to help... but in the end, she was still **useless**.

**Author's Note:**

> Poor MV!Zora. She will never catch a break.  
> (Gosh. @ past me, why so many italics and bolds???? 17 of them!!! Whyyyy did I do this to myself these are a pain to code in.)


End file.
